Desires & Secrets : Port Charles
by XTheXUltimateXMindfuckX
Summary: (auverse, port charles x gh crossover, oc nathan west pairing, calivia / mcbam pairing) Alexa Allen was raised by two older women after being left in their care myseriously as an infant. All her life, strange things have sort of just happened. When she returns to Port Charles after having been away the things begin to happen again, and a new love enters her life but what will happe
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER O1

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><p>All her life this two story white Victorian with the forest green shutters just on the edge of Port Charles outskirts had been her home. The two crazy old ladies living in it were mothers to her. She'd never actually met her own parents and in all honesty? She hadn't bothered trying to find them, not a single time.<p>

She never once worried about whether they might be missing her somewhere out there, she never once considered the possibility that what might have been done to her might not have been done to her by her parents but by someone who hated one or both of them very much.

She'd been away for a few years now and recently, her own adult life had taken a bad turn and now here she was, 25 and newly divorced with a four month old baby girl to think of.. And naturally, the first place she thought of when her nightmare ended?

That quaint little two story Victorian on the outskirts of Port Charles.. Her home.. Her family.. Even though her 'aunts' were known throughout town as weird and eccentric women (hell, around Halloween the usual local rumors went from they were women who preyed on every last of their 12 husbands to the most tame one, they were witches and if you wanted to settle a score? Go to them with a good price and they'd take care of it for you, nobody would ever be any the wiser..)

The latter rumor, of course, Alexa happened to know was at least a little bit true. The old ladies were in fact, practicing white magic witches.. And they'd taught her a few things here and there.. Not that she'd ever used them, of course.. But she'd seen what the sisters who raised her could do in a pinch.

And she found herself wishing she was like them, strong, able to take the punches life threw at you and roll with them.

But apparently, if her current situation were anything to go by, she wasn't.

She stood in the middle of the empty living room, her hand in her hair as she looked around at her childhood home, bit her lower lip. She could almost hear the aunts talking to her right now, telling her that everything was going to be alright, that life, even at it's worst had a way of fixing itself.. That she just had to believe that things would get better and eventually, they would.

Blue lights flashing in her driveway had her raising a brow and she walked to the white glass paned French doors, stood leaned in the doorway as she peered out into the driveway. "Is there a problem, officer?" she asked politely while simultaneously scowling to herself.

Neighbors must have seen her coming in and called the cops thinking that someone was breaking into the house.

Obviously, that wasn't so, she'd inherited the house from her dead adoptive aunts.

Detective Nathan West stepped onto the porch and said "A neighbor called.. Said this house has been standing empty for almost 10 years now and tonight they saw lights on over here, heard someone moving around, saw a strange car in the yard? I came to check it out.. Do you live here?"

Alexa held the necklace holding her house key up and said with a wan smile, "Nothing going on as you can clearly see.. I inherited this place.. Decided to move in. It's always been home to me.. I kinda grew up here, so I decided to move back in.. Just got here tonight, actually, and am currently settling in for the night.."

"By yourself?" Nathan asked as he studied the petite brunette in curiousity.. Everybody he knew in town said this house was haunted or something.. He knew guys down at the station that didn't dare answer a call they got to go out and check up on the place if it came in after dark..

It was kind of the sole reason he volunteered to come out tonight.. Especially with his being the new guy on the squad and his fellow officers Dante Falconeri and Logan Hayes taunting him about his not being 'one of the guys' until he'd had to investigate a call out to this house after dark.

So far, he saw nothing (outside of the very sexy brunette standing in front of him currently who hadn't been living here until a few hours ago) that raised his brows. He looked at her in concern and asked "Are you up here alone? Because this is a long way from town.. And a bad storm is about to come in.."

"All alone, Detective." Alexa said as she managed a small tight smile and then said "Except for my baby girl sleeping upstairs of course. It's just the two of us.. But I think I can handle a little bitty storm."

Somehow he didn't doubt that she could..

But it still concerned him, he wasn't the kind of guy who actually liked leaving a woman alone and defenseless for any reason.

He nodded and hearing his radio in the patrol car going off he said his goodbyes. She stopped him when he was halfway down the colorful stone walkway that lead to the driveway by calling out "It's nice to see chivalry isn't completely dead, Detective."

It didn't hit him until he'd gotten into the car that he hadn't once mentioned that he was an actual detective on the force.. And when it did hit him, he wondered how she knew that if he hadn't told her.

All the badges were the same for the most part, different badge numbers, of course.. But essentially designed the exact same. He shrugged it off, the whole thing soon forgotten.. But he found himself looking around whenever he was in the diner or out somewhere and sometimes in the following days, he'd find himself thinking of the girl, wondering if she were alright up there in that big creepy old house outside of town all alone..


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER O2

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><p>She raked her hand slowly through her long dark hair as she sighed and took another sip of coffee, watched the rain as it cascaded down the window of Kelly's Diner where she currently sat in the back booth, her sleeping daughter in the pale pink and purple carrier on the table in front of her. Scanning the classifieds was proving to be a totally fruitless venture and she needed to find a job soon. She wasn't going to just piss her inheritance away, she wanted to have that to save for dire emergencies.<p>

She bit her short and badly bitten nails as she sighed and rested her head on the palm of her hand, said quietly, "Don't worry angel.. mommy will find something sooner or later, okay?" while peering into the carrier at her baby girl who was still sleeping soundly, soft baby smile of peace and tranquility on her little face. Aurora had not a clue as to what real and very frightening problems Mommy faced and if Alexa had her way about things, the sleeping angel in the pink and purple carrier on the tabletop in front of her never would.

She'd come back to Port Charles to start over.. Because when you can't go anywhere else you can always go back home. And in the week or two she'd been here, she'd been getting the house her aunts left her in good living condition. Surprisingly, the two elderly women had been nothing if not dilligent in their own upkeep of the place and aside from a few small glitches, she'd had no major repairs facing her that would have further drained the inheritance money her aunts left her in addition to the house.

A familiar voice spoke from above her and she looked up, taking a bite of french fry as the detective who'd stopped by her aunts place to check out a tip given to him by the neighbors on her first night back in town stood above her. "Mind if I?" he asked as he nodded to the bench and when she nodded and managed a friendly smile and a casual shrug, he slid into the seat.

He peeked into the baby carrier and smiled as he saw the little girl with head full of dark hair, long eyelashes and little pink lips sleeping. "She's beautiful." he said casually, as he added in his own mind, _'Just like her mom, actually.' _and then asked, "So.. What brings you into town today?"

"Trying to find a job, actually.. No place I've looked seems to be hiring. I mean I can pretty much do anything thanks to being an indecisive college student at one point in time.. " Alexa admitted as she gave him a sheepish grin and then asked, "How goes it? Keeping the streets of our fair city safe must be a damn hard job, especially in this town.. I mean if memory serves.." while eyeing him curiously.

Nathan chuckled and said with a shrug, "It's a job. Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's frustrating, sometimes, like today, it's slow as hell." as he looked at her and then slid his hand across the table, slid the menu that sat to the side of her plate to him and opened it, quietly. He'd felt this magnetic pull to come into the diner when he saw her sitting in the back booth alone with her little girl and he hadn't bothered to fight it.

Even though his partner's wife Lulu seemed to think for some odd reason that Alexa Allen was some kind of dark witch or something, that her aunts killed all twelve of their husbands throughout their lives. He'd been curious, looked into the Allen family history and quickly realized that at least half of what was actually documented in old town newspapers had to be mostly rumor and not actual fact.

Not that he didn't believe in magic or anything, but he found it highly unlikely that the girl sitting in the booth seat across from him was evil like most people who claimed to know her seemed to think she and her aunts were. When she laughed spontaneously he looked at her with a raised brow and she asked him casually, almost a teasing gleam in her eye while taking a bite of her french fries, "So.. What have you heard about me so far? Just curious, really.."

He started to tell her everything he'd heard and they shared a laugh, the laugh ended with an awkward but not entirely awkward long pause and silent staring contest. He added as a quiet afterthought, "Not that I believe in that stuff."

"It's not fake." Alexa admitted as she looked at him, bit her lower lip and then added, "But it's not what the people who talked to you make it seem like, either.. No, the actual truth, Detective, is much more mundane than that.. At best all my aunts did were conjure a few healing spells, try and reunite one woman with a high school sweetheart and other little things.."

"And you grew up seeing this?" Nathan asked, shocked. She shrugged casually and said "Oh.. And my aunt Theo used to tell fortunes.. She was a blast.. She mostly just used her intuition and told people what she knew they wanted to hear, what she knew would make them happy to hear.. It's a bunch of smoke and mirrors, magic is.. I mean I've dabbled but... I find no actual use for it."

"Ahh.."

"Science major at one point." Alexa explained as he nodded and chuckled then asked, " How are you enjoying it? I mean being back here?"

"It is what it is.. It's better than the situation I left, it's lonlier than it was when I lived here as a child.. Not a people person for the most part and with the aunts gone, the house is big and lonely. I've been doing a bit of redecoration though so that kills the time." Alexa offered as an explanation as she looked at him and asked "And you? How do you like living here?"

"Huh?"

"You had to have just moved to town obviously." Alexa offered with a shrug as Nathan gaped at her a moment and then said quietly, "It's good so far.. I've made some good friends.. I was subletting this apartment with this girl named Maxie and..."

Alexa held up her finger and said with a slightly crooked (and sexy) grin, "Let me guess.. You were caught up in her charm. She however, was into another guy.. Now she's left town?"

"How'd you know?"

"Heard someone talking about her going to Seattle to stop Spinelli and some Ellie chick's wedding.. You didn't think I knew that.." Alexa asked with wide and disbelieving amused brown eyes as she laughed a moment and then said "Maxie's always been like that. A couple of us less popular girls at PCH used to joke that her bedroom had an open window policy. And that anyone who dated her was dating half the guys in this town. But you probably knew the better side of her.. And people change. She's probably a lot different now.. I know I am."

"Actually she's not much different.. I mean I thought we had something then I wake up to a note that she's decided that Spinelli, this guy in Seattle, is it for her." Nathan admitted with a shrug as Alexa sipped a strawberry milkshake and then said "She's always ran back to the guy.. Personally I wondered why they called their wedding off a few years back. Not my place to judge though.. at least she didn't marry an abusive asshole, huh?"

"You?"

"Yeah, me.. Look, the guy was sweet to start with.. Then somewhere along the line he turned into a monster. I make a ton of mistakes, sadly. He was one of them.. But I got the best part of that mistake, she's sleeping in that baby carrier between us, Detective." Alexa mused as Nathan's phone went off and he grumbled as he said "I'll see you around, right? I've gotta get back to the station."

"Go ahead, don't let me stop you.. And yeah, this is a small town. you will most likely see me around."


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER O3

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><p>The knock on the door had her raising a brow, muting her tv and springing up off the couch, jogging to the door. She peered out and looking at the porch and then the walkway, she saw no one there. A car's tail lights illuminated the night as the car went past on the street above (she lived at the foot of a hill, her house was slightly below the road) and she raised a brow, started to shrug things off.. But then she noticed the package on the porch.<p>

Opening the door, she peered out again cautiously and satisfied that nobody was around, she walked out onto the front porch, rubbing her arms to warm herself against the slight chill in the night air as she bent, picked up the package and walked into the house. She sat the package on the table and for a while she thought that maybe it'd been a mistaken delivery.

One look at the address however, proved that theory to be false. Seeing as how the package was addressed to her, she grabbed a knife from the silverware drawer in her kitchen and poured herself a glass of red wine as she slunk back into the dining room and paced a moment. The package had her name on it.. What then was the harm in opening the box. She bit her lower lip and sipped the wine then muttered to herself, "Worst case scenario is that it's an old 'customer' of the aunts thinking that maybe I'm like them and I'm into the whole magic and witchcraft thing. If that's it I can return this tomorrow when I go into town to pick up groceries and check into that empty building they have for rent down on Main Street."

She held her breath a moment, unsure why and sliced into the ribbon and then the packing tape holding the box together. And when she saw that just a folder sat on the bottom of the box she raised a brow and lifted it out, curiousity gleaming in her almost golden brown eyes. She'd just sat down in a white ladderback chair and propped her feet up on the white wooden farmhouse dining room table when she heard another knock on the door.

" Just happened to be out this way on a call." Nathan called through the closed door as Alexa called out "Just a minute.. Hey, on your way in.. Did you see a car or something leaving here?"

"Not that I'm aware, why?" Nathan asked as he stepped into the house when Alexa opened the door, sipping wine from a bottle. She shrugged and said quietly, "You just missed Aurora. She just went down for her nap. Anyway, the reason I asked the other is because I just got this really weird package? And I could've sworn I saw a car pulling away from my driveway just after it was left? It's weird, anyway.. What brings you out here?"

Nathan shrugged.. He'd gotten a vandalism call for an abandoned church nearby, as he'd driven by Alexa's house he'd just sort of gotten this urge to stop and make sure the single mother was alright, she did live an awfully far distance out of the actual town and it did concern him, it had a lot since the night he'd met her. But instead of admitting that, he shrugged and said simply, "Got a call out, figured I'd stop by. Now I'm glad I did.. Mind if I take a look at this package?"

"Sure.. I mean it makes no actual sense to me, why someone would send me all this stuff about a baby that that rock star who went batshit bananas not so long ago and turned serial killer's ex lost.. But yeah.. It's just.. I was reading some of the stuff in the folder in the box, looking at the pictures.. I got the weirdest chills, Nathan." Alexa admitted as she caught and held Nathan's gaze a few moments before slinking into the dining room and taking the folder out of the box, putting it into his hands and adding, "If you were off duty I'd offer you a glass of wine. My aunts made this batch about two years before they died?"

Nathan raised a brow and Alexa explained, "It's mostly stuff they grew in the garden out back.. Strawberries? They took a batch of their best strawberries out to the vineyard on the way out of Port Charles that summer, had their own bottles brewed. I was never sure why but I figured there's really no use in it just sitting around and wasting away.."

He flipped through the folder slowly, raised a brow at the birth certificate someone must have photocopied. His eyes scanned a handwritten letter from the man himself, Caleb, that mostly seemed to be filled with gibberish. He remembered something in the news about Caleb's grip on sanity going before the end. If this stuff were true, then the man must have thought that Alexa was the daughter that Livvie lost, that for whatever reason, Caleb seemed to be hinting here, in a letter written before his death, that enemies he had had stolen Alexa and covered the whole thing up.

He could tell it was troubling Alexa, and he really didn't blame her for being concerned but he was also pretty sure that if it were looked into, nothing would come of it.. Or at least that's what he sort of wanted to think, for Alexa's sake.. She had a peaceful and low key life right now.. If this came out, he found himself worried for the girl he'd felt this magnetic (and strange, very strange) pull towards since the night they'd met.

But then again.. She did have almost the exact same shade eyes as both Caleb and his twin Silas had.. And Nathan had seen enough pictures of Livvie to know that Alexa could also be a dead ringer for a younger version of the woman (or, for that matter, Sam McCall..)

"Honestly, Alexa? I think someone's just trying to mess with you.. Did your aunts know this guy?" Nathan asked as he raked his hand slowly over the back of his neck and looked at Alexa who shrugged and said "They never spoke of him, no.. But something about that picture, " she said as she took a generous sip of wine, nodded her head towards a picture of Caleb holding a little pink bundle, obviously taken by paparazzi through a window on his super private estate in London,"something about that picture feels.. Forget it, Nathan, it's creepy, it's weird, even for my standards.. And I've seen some really weird things growing up with the aunts in this house.."

Nathan nodded.

Aurora's cries from upstairs interrupted an intense staredown the two had going as he debated on whether to try and hug her or something to comfort her, or if it were a better idea, considering how little he did know her, to not touch her just yet.. Alexa sighed and said with a smile, "I'm gonna go get my little angel.. Maybe holding her will sorta calm me down.. Wanna walk up with me?"

"I can.. Then sadly, I probably need to get my ass back to the station. But I'll see you again."

"Mhmm, I know.. If I didn't know any better, Detective.. I'd almost say that us bumping into each other so much means something.. That it's a universal sign.. But I don't believe in magic, so..."

Nathan chuckled and nodded as he walked up the staircase with her. The storm that had been threatening to come all afternoon finally came and he stood in the doorway of a pale pink nursery watching her with her little girl, smiling to himself.. 'I'd almost say it was a sign of some kind too.' he muttered to himself as he walked back down teh stairs about ten minutes later and got into his patrol car..

And across town, Sam McCall Morgan sat on the bed in her bedroom at her penthouse and looked at a long faded and worn down pale pink blanket as she wondered for a moment where the blanket and the hospital id bracelet that was so badly faded she couldn't actually read it had come from. All she knew was that it was sitting in the top corner of her closet, just out of sight.. And it had been for about three or four years now when it'd shown up on her doorstep with no forwarding address. What baffled her more was that there was a picture, of her.. Or a woman who looked just like her, almost a mirror image, holding a little pink bundle of blankets.

And all Alexa found herself wondering about, oddly enough, was if Nathan kept crossing her path for a reason.. She was totally unaware of anything that was going on elsewhere.. But very curious about why her path seemed to keep crossing with the path of the very sexy and very available detective Nathan West...


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER O4

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><p>She lie awake in bed, breathing heavily as if she'd just ran a 5k marathon. The moon shone brightly through her sheer bedroom curtains and the breeze blowing in off the nearby lake was cooling the room down pleasantly. By all means, the wine she'd drank earlier, the cool night air blowing through her open bedroom window should be more than enough to put her into a peaceful sleep, at least for a few hours, at which point she'd most likely have to get up, give Aurora her midnight snack in the form of another bottle of formula.<p>

The heavy and passionate and very lust filled dream she'd just woken up from still weighed heavily on her mind and she could not shake it. It felt real, like one of those lucid dreams that people rant and rave about, that people write books on upon occasion. She grumbled as she sat up in the bed, the sheet barely covering her semi nude form as she bit her lower lip.

Downstairs, the phone was ringing and she was too drained physically, by the marathon sex she'd just been having in a very, very lucid dream just now, to even be bothered to get up and jog down the stairs, into the kitchen where the phone was docked on a wall, to answer it. She did slide out of bed though and take a few deep breaths just to slow down her rapidly beating heart and as she wandered into the bathroom, her white and black damask print bed sheet wrapped around her tiny frame, she glared at the mirror on the wall in frustration.

What the hell was it about that man, Detective Nathan West, that got her all hot and bothered, exactly? She barely knew the guy and what limited experiences that she had had with men previously all went badly. She'd moved here to her aunts house to heal, to be home again, to sort of isolate herself from the fear that she might just one day fall again.. And most likely be hurt.. Again.

Not to meet some guy, purely by accident, and have him proceed to invade her mind, her stream of consciousness because she had to face it she was most definitely painfully aware of this man, and now, apparently, he was going to invade her most personal and passionate erotic fantasies. She raked a hand carelessly through long and wavy sleep mussed dark brown hair as she looked at the way just the thought of the dream she'd woken from had her skin flushed and lips swollen from imagined kisses in the mirror.

"If this keeps up I'm never gonna be able to take a damn hot shower again." she complained quietly as she lightly beat her head against the silver framed antique mirror that hung above the bathroom vanity sink. The phone downstairs continued to ring and the storm outside picked up a great deal in intensity and she grumbled. All Alexa wanted right now?

Sleep.

She'd even take sleep, cuddled in a loving man's arms over a good romp in the hay right now. She laughed bitterly, shook her head. If her aunts were alive right now, they'd be teasing her about this.. They'd be offering to make 'love potion number nine' and invite her handsome detective over, feed it to him in a rich and creamy chocolate mousse desert or something.

"You have to get a grip, Alexa. You are here to heal and start over.. To stand on your own damn feet after quite a few years of not doing so. To rush back into anything, to even consider it, that's highly irresponsible." she coaxed her reflection in the mirror. Her hand raised, it went to the silver locket she'd always worn around her neck, a sixteenth birthday gift from some unknown sender.. her aunts had told her when they'd given it to her that the box it came in wasn't postmarked, that a strange looking man had delivered it and said that it was a gift for a beautiful young girl on her sixteenth birthday..

When the aunts realized that the s tone in the center on the front of the silver heart shaped locket was a stone of some sort, that it was to protect the girl from danger and sickness, to guide her safely through life.. They'd discussed it and ultimately given Alexa the necklace. It remained, to date, the most expensive and only real piece of jewelry she owned.

She'd always thought, of course, that one of the aunts 'customers' had come up short a payment and knowing that Alexa's birthday was at hand, they'd given a prized heirloom in lieu of a payment for services her aunts gave them..

She wasn't a hopeless romantic though and she'd never claimed to be.. She'd just always sort of felt safer, calmer and much less worried when she wore the necklace and as a result, she'd never dared take the thing off.

Tonight, her fingers drifted over the mixture of small stones in the intricately carved front of the locket and her tongue slid out, slid slowly over her lips as she thought about the dream she'd woken from just a few moments before.. What hold did this Nathan West guy have on her? And why did he have such a strong hold on her?

Across town, Nathan tossed and turned in his bed. Sweat dampened his skin and he groaned a few times quietly as he dreamt of the girl he'd met recently, Alexa.. The girl he seemed to have this odd magnetic pull towards. It was driving him nuts and he knew if he didn't figure out why he was drawn to her soon he'd lose his mind.

He rolled over and the dream continued, it picked up intensity, he could see and feel, hear and smell.. It was like one of those bizarre lucid dreams almost.. It was too real not to be real but he knew it wasn't real. If it were real though..

The ringing of his work phone had him jolting upright in his bed and he tugged a sleeveless shirt down over his bare chest and coughed, raked his hand slowly through his dark and sweat dampened hair as he stood and walked to the table that he'd left his work phone sitting on earlier. He grumbled as he saw the station's number popping up on the ID and begrudgingly he started to pull on jeans and dig around for his badge, his gun and holster. "Yeah, Ms. Devaine, I'll be there.. The crime scene is where?" he asked as he jotted down directions to the scene he'd been called out to.

And the entire drive over, he couldn't get the very sexual dream out of his mind.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER O5

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><p>The brunette was walking out of Kelly's just as Sam was walking in. The two collided and for a moment, Sam had this bizarre thing happen to her. She could look at the girl and she felt this overwhelming bond or something, though she'd never seen the girl in her life until now. She must have been staring pretty hard because the girl asked with a light laugh, "Are you okay, ma'am?" politely. Sam nodded and said quietly, "I'm fine, just.. Do I know you?" to which the other female shook her head and then said "I was about to ask you the same though.." while biting her lower lip and looking at the woman intently.. She had to have seen the woman before or something, that had to be it.<p>

Sam nodded and then spotted the little bundle of pink and purple blankets in the girls arms and asked, "Can I see her?" with a soft smile. Alexa normally didn't do it, but for some reason, she let the woman take the little girl and Sam stared down at the baby she held intently as she asked Alexa, "How old is she?"

"She's four months old. I just moved here, actually.. Are you sure we haven't met or something?" Alexa asked as Sam handed her baby girl back to her. The little girl was cooing quietly, smiling bright and stormy gray eyes. Sam studied her a few moments and said quietly, "No.. I'm not sure.. I can almost swear I've met you before or something."

"Maybe I just have a familiar looking face?" Alexa offered with a shrug as she thought over this latest bizarre incident for a few moments. It was best if she didn't read to much into it, maybe the woman was just someone she'd seen around town. Or maybe it was someone the aunts helped when she'd lived here the first time as a younger girl.

That had to be it.

"I've gotta get going. My name's Sam." Sam said finally as she forced herself to walk away, forced herself to walk down to her own office and go inside, take a seat at her desk. And then she opened the little box again.. She'd grabbed it out of her closet this morning, she'd bought it to work with her as well as the other package that had arrived earlier today.

A beautiful silver necklace with roses etched intertwining delicately on the front of a heart shaped pendant. The roses all had little stones on them, it looked really, really expensive.. And really, really old fashioned. The necklace hadn't come with a card, of course, or a forwarding address.. But there had been something engraved on the back of it.

The words Remember Always.

For whatever reason, Sam had put the thing on, rather than doing the smart thing and going down to PCPD with it, or taking it back to the post office just in case there had been some kind of mix up with the mail. The words sounded familiar, as if she'd heard them somewhere before, and often. She licked her lower lips as she recalled a dream she'd had the night before about a friend of hers, OFficer John McBain.. Who oddly enough, the first time she'd met him, she'd had the same overwhelming sense of deja vu that she had seconds before on the sidewalk outside of Kelly's with that young woman.

As she thought about John, she laughed when she looked down at her cell phone and saw a new text from him. After texting him back, she got to work trying to uncover the mystery of the necklace and the box that had been sent to her about three or four years before, right after she'd just come to Port Charles...

Something very weird was happening and Sam wasn't going to rest until she got to the bottom of it. And she was going to start doing that very thing, today. She stretched and yawned, her fingers found the pendant dangling around her neck and she slid her fingers over it as she stared at her computer screen in contemplative silence.

She'd put in everyting she could honestly think of in the search bank she used, she was coming up empty every single time. The door to the agency opened and John called out casually, "Thought you could use a bite to eat. I bought burgers." as Sam called out "Back here, John." and took the burger and milkshake he held out to her a few seconds later as he emerged into her private office, sat down in a chair on the other side of the desk, eyed the box with a weird expression on his face as he asked "You got one of those too?"

"Yeah.. Why did you?" Sam asked as she raked her hand through her hair and for a moment she and John gazed at one another. He smirked and said with a shrug, "Yeah, I got one.. I'll be damned if I know what to make of what was in it, though. It was actually sort of creepy."

"Same here.. I got this I think about a month after I first came to town. And I never thought about it until this came in the mail today.. In a similar box, with no forwarding or return address." as she gestured to the necklace.

John held up his hand and pointed to the sleeve of his button up shirt then said "Cufflinks.. Got 'em earlier. Thought you sent them." while taking a large bite of his food. Sam shook her head then admitted, "I thought you sent this."

"I didn't." they said at the same time, holding each other's gazes as they continued to eat. "Something really, really weird is going on here."

"Agreed."

"Someone's up to something.. Now I just have to find out who and what they're up to." Sam said as John nodded and then said "I'm gonna look into finding the sender of my boxes too."

"That would be a good idea."


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER O6

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><p>Lana Del Ray (Blue Jeans) played from inside the house. Nathan normally wouldn't just barge into someone's house, but the volume was up higher than Alexa listened to music when she was doing something in the house and a neighbor, concerned about Alexa, something about the way she'd acted when she'd come by earlier to drop off her baby girl, Aurora before she'd went in to work, and then the fact that Alexa was running late both had her on alert.. She said Alexa had been jumpy all week nearly, and once or twice, the woman thought she saw a strange car parked just at the top of the downward sloping driveway that lead back to Alexa's house.. That when she'd asked the man if he was lost, the man had just smirked at her and taken off rather hastily.<p>

He'd looked up her number and called casually. As a cop there wasn't anything he could actually do unless someone came in and made an official report.. Unless Alexa told him there was danger, he couldn't interfere, which he hated. Because right now, standing in the front room of the house? He just got a really, really bad feeling. And he always trusted his gut. His gut, right now, was telling him something was very very wrong. He went back to a conversation they'd had, about her ex, and he remembered how panicked she'd looked, the fear in her eyes, just talking about the guy. Had her ex shown up?

"Alexa?" he called out as he pushed the door open, gun out, carefully moving through the house. The place looked like it had been trashed and as if to set the creepy mood, raise the tension he was feeling right now, the music playing changed from Lana Del Ray to Florence And The Machines (Seven Devils) as he walked through the front room and into the rather large gourment kitchen, then through the dining nook nearby.

The necklace glimmered in the semi darkened house and he bent, picked it up, remembered that every single time he'd seen her, she'd been wearing it. The necklace he held in his hands right now never left Alexa's neck. Then he noticed the broken bottle of strawberry wine and what appeared to be a bloody handprint on the edge of a tile counter.

By now, surprising protective urges were rising to the surface in the normally cool and calm laid back guy and he called her name again. He walked farther into the downstairs of the quaint and cozy 2 story Victorian house and as he entered the sun room, he saw a bloody bare footprint.

His stomach began to churn and he noticed that the antique silver locket he held in his hand seemed to be getting warmer. He raised a brow at this then put it down to his distress at this situation. He wasn't exactly looking at things like a hardened cop would, after all, due to the fact that he had this strange connection to her, there was this pull between them that by now, after having known her for almost a month, this pull was not explained away, and it wasn't going away, either.

He thought he heard movement at the top of the stairs, so he made his way up quietly. As he turned the corner and opened doors to bedrooms, to the bathroom, to Aurora's nursery, he strained to see and hear as the storm started to pick up in intensity outside. "Alexa? Somebody up here?" Nathan called out as Alexa said quietly from the corner of her bedroom, "Over here.." and slid out from beneath the massive four poster king sized bed sitting near the door.

He winced as he shined the light from his mobile phone on her and saw that it literally looked like she'd taken one hell of a beating. She went to try and stand, wincing the whole time and he stated firmly, "Don't.. I'll come over there, to you. What the hell happened?" as he looked at her in concern, bent and picked her up in his arms. Alexa said quietly, "My ex broke in.. I'd come by here before I stopped at the neighbors to pick up Aurora for the day, I had groceries I wanted to put up.. He was waiting in the pantry and I didn't know until he made a grab for me."

"And where is he now?"

"Got up here to the aunts.. " she said as she stopped to take a breath and then continued to speak "The aunts have a gun cabinet up here.. It's out of the way, when I moved in I bought a shotgun, just in case.. I made it up here and got off a few warning shots. Something.. He got spooked I guess and he ran?" Alexa said as Nathan said quietly, "You're gonna come down to the station with me.. After I take you to the hospital.. Aurora's fine, she's still at your neighbors.. Right?"

"I want to go get her."

"I know.. We will, I was just asking if you thought your ex would go over there and try and take Aurora." Nathan asked as Alexa shook her head and said with a pained laugh, "Ms. Harrison is a tough old lady. Trust me. I've seen her take on her husband when the man came home after one too many. The fact that he was scared of her, his being a really, really big and scary guy himself.. I feel safe knowing my baby girl is there. Thank God she wasn't with me tonight when I got home." Alexa said as she awkwardly placed her head on his shoulder, her lips brushed his neck which sent a tingle through his body that was almost like an electric jolt.

"You're gonna be okay. Does he do this a lot?" Nathan asked as he looked at her in concern. She shook her head and said quietly, " Nope. Then again, he couldn't find me before, either." while holding Nathan's gaze. He remembered the necklace in his hand and he put it into her hand then said "Let's go get Aurora and get you to the hospital, get you looked over."

"Just so you know, Detective.. I'm not weak.. I fought back.. Kind of why I look like hell right now." Alexa said quietly as Nathan looked at her and then pointed out, "You're not weak if you're scared."

"I wasn't scared. I was angry. So when he started fighting me I fought back. I hate fighting, really.." Alexa muttered as Nathan nodded, carried her down to his car and put her into the passenger seat then went to her car parked nearby, got out the car seat for Aurora and fastened that into the backseat before getting in.

And out in the woods, a man in solid black walked away from the house, down a path carved into the side of the cliff the house was built on, down to the shore of the lake.. He stood there, staring out at the water..

He'd kept Caleb's kid safe tonight. When he finally managed to restore Caleb and Livvie's memories, reunite their family so that Caleb could start to rebuild his following.. He expected his services to be remembered.


	7. Chapter 6 i

CHAPTER O7

* * *

><p>He helped her into the small apartment, shut the door behind them as she took a few deep breaths. Apparently, she couldn't go home for a few days now because her house was turned into a crime scene. Somehow, she pictured the aunts spinning in their graves at this knowledge, they'd went above and beyond to stay out of the eye of the town. And now, here she was, her presence in the cozy two story had turned the place into a crime scene and what was worse, her ex had recently been reported missing by his mother.<p>

So now she could very well be a murder suspect to boot. And while the recollection of that night was foggy at best, she knew enough to know with absolute certainty that she had not killed her bastard ex. And she knew (or suspected, at least) that she hadn't been alone in the house that night. Either way it went, here she was now, staying in the apartment of a cop she barely knew yet felt this overwhelming connection, this magnetic pull towards.

"He'll turn up. He's like a cockroach like that. I didn't kill the bastard, believe me, detective, if I had.. I'd have gladly confessed." Alexa muttered as she bit her lower lip,fixed her gaze on Nathan who nodded quietly and then insisted, "Nobody thinks you killed him. I definitely don't. You think someone else was in the house that night? Why?"

She shrugged, she didn't know how to explain her hunches most of the time, or why they were right, they just sort of came and went. The aunts used to say that she had her own special 'abilities' that she'd been an unusual child, that sometimes she just 'knew' things.. Alexa didn't honestly believe it, not any more than she believed in the craft. She knew that people had faith in her aunts works and beliefs when they'd been alive, but their 'faith' and their believing in the aunts, well.. At times it'd been a double edged sword.

She bore the scars from a childhood of bullying, sadly.

"There has to be a reason.. I'm trying to help you.. You have to help me do that." Nathan said quietly as he watched her, leaned in the archway that seperated the kitchen in the apartment from the living room. Alexa looked up from giving Aurora her bottle and said quietly, " I thought I saw someone.. On the porch.. Before my ex got me from behind the first time.. That's why I was distracted, actually.. Too damn distracted by what was on the back porch to turn around and see that the real danger was right behind the door in my kitchen's pantry."

"This someone.. Did you get a decent look at them or..." Nathan asked as he walked to the sofa, sat down beside Alexa, looked at her in concern. The black eyes and busted lip were still too much for him to look at without wincing, but he also knew that when it came time to catch her ex, prove that Alexa had done nothing but defend herself in the house that night, the black eyes and busted lip as well as her other injuries would be more than sufficient enough to light a fire underneath his ass in doing this.

"Whoever it was.. They were wearing a black hooded cloak.. And they had these strange eyes, they almost glowed in the dark.. It's.. Nevermind, I mean even as I'm saying this, out loud, it sounds like I'm crazy as hell.. I can only imagine how it sounds to you right now. Look, I'll be fine.. Like I said, my ex is a cockroach like that, he'll turn up sooner or later."

"Alive, let's hope."

"Nathan, seriously.. I bought this all on my own head by even being involved with this asshole. It's not your place to..." Alexa said as she looked at him, eyes full of concern. He just wouldn't back down.. She'd come here, to Port Charles, to be left alone, to live out her life in peaceful solitude.. An idea that had quickly gone out the window when they met that first night she stayed at her aunts.

Since then? They somehow always seemed to find one another, even if they weren't really trying to do so.

"You're my friend.. And you were only acting in self defense, Alexa, I'm not gonna just let this go, let you go down for something you didn't even do."

"Just knowing you believe me, Nathan, is more than enough. More than I deserve, really.. I mean how the hell could I have ever thought this guy was a good guy? How did I not see the bad in him?" Alexa mused as a sour expression crept onto her face and she took a few deep breaths. Nathan stood and said quietly, "So we'll get someone to do a sketch of this guy in a cloak.. And we'll get Sam to look into your case. If there was someone else at the house, they either saw what happened and can help us, or they were behind your ex disappearing without a trace and they need to be the ones arrested. Because all you did, Alexa, was try and defend yourself in your own house."

"It's still my fault, Nathan.. I attract guys like this.. Or I did.. Or something, hell, I don't really know." Alexa said as she began to work on a sketch of her own of what she thought the person on her porch, who she'd only caught a fleeting glimpse of to be honest, might have looked like as she sipped green tea that Nathan bought in to her. When she finished, she held it out to him and said quietly, "it's not perfect.. But it's close to what I actually got to see."

The first thing that caught Nathan's attention was the partial shape on the drawing, near the wrist. "A tattoo?"

"I think so, yes.. The power went off before I could actually clearly see the guy.. My ex got me after that.. So maybe someone was working with my ex?"

"That could be possible.. And maybe your ex refused to pay them... Is he the type that would hire a hitman to take you out or something?" Nathan asked as Alexa shrugged and sipping her tea admitted quietly, "I wouldn't put it past him.. But this other guy.. Why was he on the outside, not on the inside with my ex? To distract me, you think?"

"Could've been."

They fell silent and Nathan took the drawing, made a mental note to take it to Sam McCall Morgan, this woman who owned a pretty damn good private investigation firm that the PCPD sometimes outsourced their cases too when the cases weren't too serious.

Maybe Sam could find this person.

Or she could put them on the right trail to finding him themselves. Nathan was just concerned for Alexa's safety.. Knocking on the apartment door had him raising a brow and he looked at her, she shrugged as the person on the other side of the door called out, "Package for Nathan West?"

"Did you order something?" Alexa asked as Nathan shook his head but opened the door, signed for the package. He tore into it carefully, careful to keep the paper that was torn away, putting it to the side.

In the bottom of the medium sized box filled with packaging styrofoam, sat a black velvet box. And when he opened it, he raised a brow at the pair of sliver cufflinks that sported a ruby s tone sitting there.

"Okay, now that's weird.. Because just the other day, another guy at the station got the exact same thing.." Nathan said as he took out his cell phone, called John McBain, left him a message explaining the situation.

A few moments later, John called back, asked him to come down to the station and bring the packaging and the note, the cufflinks and said he'd do the same..

Alexa bit her lower lip and asked, "So.. Does this kinda stuff happen often?"  
>"No, but oddly enough, Alexa.. I have this really, really weird feeling..."<p>

"Just be careful, okay?"

"You too, Alexa.. Lock the door behind me, and no matter what anyone says, do not open it unless you know I'm standing on the other side.. Just in case.." which made Alexa nod in agreement, walk him to the door. He stood in the doorway a few moments and for whatever reason, Alexa felt this sudden urge to hug him, as this sudden rush of panic and worry filled her. "I mean it, Nathan.. You really be careful, okay?"

"Won't make any promises." Nathan said as he hugged her back, his nostrils filling with the scent of her almost mouth watering wild strawberry scented perfume. She'd probably made it herself, she owned this shop down by the docks now, she sold everything from herbal cold remedies to homemade toothpaste and even shaving cream that was kind of edible.

The thought of it, the smell of the perfume made him feel a little relaxed, but he quickly said in a business-like tone of voice, "Don't open this door for anyone but me, okay?" as he looked at her. She mock saluted him and closed the door to his apartment behind him, securing all four locks on the inside. Then she wandered back towards Aurora and leaned over, sighed and said aloud, "Why the hell couldn't that man have been your daddy, huh?"


	8. Chapter 6 ii

CHAPTER O8

* * *

><p>"So Nathan West, that new detective.. He got a set of cufflinks too?" Sam asked her boyfriend John as John nodded and reached for a pasta pot just out of her reach, putting it on the stove in Sam's apartment after he'd first filled it with water. He stirred the marinara sauce he had going for the noodles and took a spoon out of the dish rack, held it out to her as he said with a smirk, "Careful, it's hot." and she took a bite.<p>

"He did, yes.. Same packaging, same note came with them, same everything.. We did a print test, not a damn usable print on either set. Or the packaging for either set. It's driving me nuts, I mean the damn things look way too expensive.. Who the hell is sending fancy expensive crap through the mail to PCPD detectives?" John wondered aloud as he looked at Sam.

The strangest thing happened when he looked at her. He got this image, in his mind, of their earlier passionate make out.. Only they weren't here, or any place he'd ever seen before to be honest, and he bit her neck at the end until he drew blood. It was enough to make the man grimace and cough a little, uncomfortable with what he'd seen mentally.

Sam coughed too and then said quietly, "That was.. It was weird.."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just something I pictured in my head.. It was sort of creepy, like.. I've seen the place before, I should know where it is like the back of my hand.. But I don't.. And you were there.."

John raked a hand slowly through his hair and asked "What else? Because I had the same feeling.. Sort of.. I mean it was creepy, I'd never.. Nevermind, it's disgusting to even think about, really." as he blinked in shock. He could almost hear her heart beating.. Which wouldn't be so strange if he weren't across the kitchen from her.. But he was, and he shouldn't, by all accounts, hear her heart beating that loudly.

He licked his lips.

There was this strange and intoxicating sweet smell that hung heavy in the air between them and he moved closer to her, looked down at her. When he spoke, it didn't sound like his voice was actually his own.. It was, but it wasn't.

It was deeper somehow.

Sam's heart began to race rapidly for no real reason. She had no reason to actually be excited or turned on at the moment, she and John were just doing a mundane thing, making food to eat, there was no innuendo involved at all, so when she started to feel a little hot and bothered it made her raise a brow mentally. It almost felt like her blood was on fire, and definitely like her body wasn't in her own possession at the moment. She moved towards him and they met in the middle of the kitchen, almost as if they were in a trance.

"Caleb."

"Olivia."

The phone rang and they snapped out of it, staring at each other in total confusion.. "What just happened?" Sam asked as John shrugged and then asked, "Who the hell is Caleb?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing, who the hell Olivia is. I'm gonna go answer the phone, when I get done, we're going to sit down and try and figure out what the hell just happened here." Sam said as she walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway into her office, answering the phone with a slightly shaky tone which her mother almost immediately picked up on.

"Are you okay?"

"Kind of.. I mean not really.. I don't know mom.. Weird things are happening lately.. I'm gonna come by later and talk to you. I need you to not commit me when I tell you what's been going on, okay? Or show you the box I've had for a while now... And don't panic.. I'm not in any actual danger as far as I know." Sam said in a rush as she tried recalling what had actually just happened in her kitchen between herself and John just now..

Why had it felt so familiar? And why did the names Caleb and Livvie sound so familiar to her? She felt a shiver run down her back as she turned on the news and saw something for a moment, a music video being played on a local rock broadcasting channel caught her eye. She gaped at it a few moments.. The lead singer of the band apparently fancied himself a vampire, and apparently, he was almost a mirror image of John..

She hit guide and realized it was one of those 'What Happened To' mystery shows that the channel always did during the month of October. She bit her lower lip as she wrote down the man's name.. It was a hunch at this point but the man having the same name, the same face as John?

That had to be more than coincidence.. It had to be..


	9. Chapter 7

CHAPTER O9

* * *

><p>She'd been staying at his apartment a week now and he was starting to really get used to coming in from work and finding her there with her little girl. It was cozy, he liked it. They were becoming really good friends, actually, and Nathan just felt this.. It was an unexplainable bond with her, really. Like right now, she was sleeping in his room and he stood in the doorway of the bathroom connected, watching her. Aurora's crib sat nearby, the baby girl was sleeping peacefully, every now and then a sigh of baby content would come from the direction of the crib.<p>

As for Lexa?

She slept fitfully, tossed and turned. The bruises and scratches from her altercation with her ex were starting to fade just a little but the impact his breaking in and trying to nearly beat her to death was far from gone. Nathan knew enough about her now to know that she wouldn't ever actually show her fear, but she was very, very afraid. With her ex still missing, after all, he could turn up anytime and try and finish what he almost accomplished the week before. The thought of it made Nathan angry, almost obsessed with finding the guy and putting him away, preferrably somewhere so far from Alexa that he'd never be able to lay a hand on her ever again.

He was just about to leave the room when Aurora woke up, crying a little. Alexa was still sleeping fitfully and Nathan figured what the hell.. Dante's kid seemed to like him and Rocco could be a picky little guy when he chose. Maybe he could do whatever Aurora needed so Alexa could have some sleep. She hardly got any, especially not in the past week.

"Shhh.. We're just gonna go in the kitchen, okay?" Nathan asked as he picked the little girl up carefully, carried her to the kitchen, found the formula Alexa usually put into her bottles. After reading the label's instructions, which he thanked God and the heavens above for because without he probably would've burnt her little mouth by accident. He had limited experience with kids, honestly.. But Alexa needed sleep.

He held her, hummed and the baby girl's cries slowly died down. Smiling, he looked at her and then asked with a chuckle, "You were hungry, huh?" as the baby girl in his arms cooed in response. Her eyes were getting heavy again, Nathan could just tell. He'd just turned around to walk back to his room, put Aurora in her crib when he turned around to find Alexa standing in the doorway of the kitchen, watching him. "You could've woken me up. I mean you just got in from work." Alexa said as she eyed him in concern for a few moments. "It's fine. You were finally sleeping.. I mean you were tossing and turning but you were sleeping." Nathan admitted as he smiled at the little girl he was holding and then added, "I didn't want to wake you up. I know how stressful things have been."

"You need sleep too."

"I can sleep tomorrow. I don't actually have to go in until ten." Nathan said as he looked at her. This urge to kiss Alexa washed over him but he did his best to ignore it. Alexa smiled at him and held out her arms for her sleeping daughter as she said quietly, "Youre good with her. Thanks for feeding her. I wish you'd have woken me up but thanks. I did need sleep."

They were standing closer now, he could smell the mint from the toothpaste she used on her breath, the stuff she washed her hair in. His mouth was watering a little, actually. "You're welcome." he said finally as he kept staring at her lips. God he wanted to kiss her right now. But he wasn't sure how she'd take it. They flirted here and there but he wasn't sure if she realized that he was genuniely interested in her. And he didn't want to seem like a jerk, like he was taking advantage of the situation they found themselves in currently.

"You okay, Nathan?"

"Huh? Yeah.. I'm good. I was just thinking." Nathan muttered as he leaned in just a little closer, brushed her bangs out of her eyes and stared into them for a few moments. She bit her lower lip as she felt her skin heating up under the intensity of his gaze. She coughed a little.. It was getting harder to breathe all of the sudden and the locket she wore felt like it was burning her neck which was weird. She leaned in a little too and said with a slight smirk, "I think my little girl likes you. Thanks for being such a sweet guy about all this." as she raised to tiptoe, brushed her full lips to his cheek.

She'd just put Aurora in the crib again, sound asleep with her new formula bottle when she felt herself being turned around, coming chest to bare chest with Nathan who stared down at her.

_'Hell with it, man.. Just do it.' _Nathan thought to himself as he leaned in closer, found himself shocked when her lips met his and then parted with a small groan and little to no resistance on her part. Her hand rested on his chest, her other hand raked through his damp hair and he tangled his fingers in her long and thick dark hair as he deepened the kiss.

Was the room turning into a sauna suddenly or was it just his imagination, he wondered as the kiss eased and then broke, Alexa stepping back, looking at him for a few moments, not sure what to say.

"I'm.. I shouldn't have..."

"I didn't mind.. I actually wanted to do it myself for a little while now, just didn't have the nerve?" Alexa admitted as he looked at her and nodded then said firmly, "Sleep. You should get some sleep."

"So should you." she repeated as she looked up at him trying to figure out what this meant, where they stood now..


	10. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 10

* * *

><p>Lexa sat on the couch in Nathan's apartment, eyes fixed on the news as her heart raced wildly in her chest. There had been a shootout or something, the news apparently was going to tell her more than she'd find out from PCPD. She found that oddly, she was worried, almost sick. Aurora slept fitfully, she could sense even that something was off tonight.<p>

Lately, since the night of that fiery kiss that she'd shared with Nathan, Lexa and Nathan had drifted closer together. They weren't quite a couple.. Yet. But there was this unspoken thing between them, they both knew it was coming and inevitable, and that at some point, they'd have to talk about how things had sort of just happened, decide what to do from that point. And she was nervous about that but not nearly as nervous as she was about what she was seeing on the news right now. She knew that Nathan had gotten a call to go to the scene, he'd been texting her when it happened and he'd gotten the order to go. So far, the news reporter hadn't mentioned any injuries or fatalities, but..

Lexa was still worried, so much that she was almost pacing. Her fingers stroked the necklace around her neck, finding comfort in the engravings, the way her fingers felt when she ran them over the small etchings. She stopped and looked down at Aurora's crib and frowned. Aurora was lying there wide awake as if she too couldn't sleep. Lexa picked up Aurora and bounced her lightly in her arms as she walked into the kitchen of Nathan's apartment, fixed Aurora a warm bottle of milk. That usually knocked her little girl right out but tonight, Aurora shoved the bottle away and stared intently at the door as if she wanted to say something. But of course, she couldn't talk, babies can't talk, so she was getting quite fussy that whatever it was she was concentrating on obviously wasn't being understood by Lexa.

"What is it, angel baby?" Lexa asked as she turned to look and see if she could figure out what Aurora was fixated on. She saw nothing, but she thought about the way Aurora usually let out this high pitched squeal of delight almost, when Nathan walked through that door, and she realized, in shock, what her little girl was trying to say, or in this case, what she was concerned about and trying to ask about.

After all, unless Nathan got the night shift at work, he was almost always home before now.

She was just trying to figure out where Nathan was. She'd obviously gotten as attached to Nathan as Lexa herself was beginning to be and the thought both shocked and concerned Lexa because she was still up in the air as to what they were, actually.. They had kissed a few nights ago, they were getting closer and Lexa did feel that there was some viable connection there, but.. What if Nathan had been caught up in a moment? They hadn't actually talked about the kiss in all honesty, since it happened... Not that she didn't want to, however, she wasn't sure he wanted to.

The cell phone sitting on the end table in front of her rang and she stared at it a moment, wondering if she should answer, dreading what might be said. Aurora watched her from her perch on Lexa's lap and finally, with shaking hands, Lexa reached out, answered it, letting out a long and slow ragged breath when she heard Nathan's voice on the other end of the line. He sounded a little shaken up, tired as hell and she didn't blame him. "I'm just glad you're okay." Lexa said as Nathan smiled to himself, hung up his phone and stepped onto the elevator about the same time as John McBain did, heading to the apartment on the floor above his. "Hell of a night, huh?" John asked as Nathan nodded and said quietly, "You have no idea.. I actually just called my girl to tell her I was okay. I mean she's not exactly my girl...Yet."

John gave him his trademark cocky half grin and mused aloud, "Yeah, shit like tonight will make you realize what's important. I just got off the phone with Sam too. First thing I wanted to hear when the whole damn thing was over." as he looked at the younger detective and then asked, "You ever find anything about those cuff links?'

"Nope. Did you?" Nathan asked as he eyed the older male who said quietly, "Not a damn thing, actually.. But some really weird stuff has went down since." as he thought back to the whole scene in Sam's kitchen where they'd gotten frozen in this strange sort of trance and it actually felt like two different people were in control of them, the things they'd said, the things they'd done.. He'd called her Livvie, apparently, and she'd called him Caleb.. he got the remark that he looked like recently deceased rock front man Caleb Morley all the time but.. He'd never actually paid it any mind until that night, until he'd called Sam Livvie.. Anyone who knew rock music of the area surrounding Port Charles knew about Caleb's girlfriend Livvie, who'd disappeared mysteriously.. With a child.. Only to have not been seen since..

Since the day their whole incident happened, John and Sam had sort of been digging around into what might have happened to Livvie. And the baby, a daughter, of course. Neither were sure why, but both were secretly hoping that they'd find some kind of answer as to why they'd referred to each other by those names that night and two or three nights after, out of the blue.

Not to mention another package Sam got recently that scared her a little, even if John knew fully well she'd die before admitting it, implying that SHE of all people, was Livvie.. Just because like with him and his likeness to Caleb Morley, she happened to look eerily enough like Livvie.

"Define weird." Nathan asked as John shrugged and said "I don't know, just weird things have happened.. Why, something happened to you?" John asked, secretly hopeful that something had, after all he'd gotten the exact same cuff links almost. There was something spooky about the whole bit, and even though it was October, a month in which creeps turned up and strange shit happened by the boat load in Port Charles..

This went above and beyond and John was actually alarmed.

"Just sometimes, man.. I know when to show up after work with food already.. And I get these really strong feelings out of the blue that something's up, something's worrying Lexa so I'll call her and see if she's okay.. I mean yeah, I'm falling for her, but at least two of those times, she'd been creeped out by something that happened to her. She got some weird package in the mail.. That rock star guy who went bananas and killed people because he thought he was a vampire and his wife? Somebody mailed her a picture of them in a frame."

John's ears perked and he asked Nathan, "Do you still have it?"

"Yeah.. I can grab it and bring it out if you'll wait." Nathan said as John nodded and said quietly and calmly, "Do that." as the elevator came to a stop on Nathan's floor. Nathan had only just stepped off the elevator when he was bumrushed by Lexa who jumped into his arms and then blushed, went quiet and bit her lip as she looked at him like she was waiting on him to either say something or do something. He smiled and leaned in to kiss her and muttered into her lips, "You have no idea how glad I am to be outta there." before spinning her around a little and then sitting her down on her own two feet. She looked up at him and said quietly, "I finally got Aurora to sleep. I think she was worried about you too. We both were." while holding his gaze intently. Truth be told, she had just been planning on staying in the apartment but she got this really, really strong urge that she couldn't control out of nowhere, and when she'd heard him talking in the hallway, she hadn't thought, she'd only acted.

And judging by the smile on his face as he kissed her as passionately as he had a few nights ago, he'd liked that she didn't curb her urge to do what she'd done just now. John chuckled at the pair and then said to Nathan, "Know what, man? Just bring it with you to work tomorrow.. I'm not gonna do a damn thing but kick back with Sam and Danny and watch the Eagles kick some serious ass tonight." as Nathan called out after him, "The Jets are better."

"Both of you are idiots," Lexa informed the males, "because the Saints have got a good team."

Nathan snorted and looked at her with a teasing grin and said in a husky and really seductive tone of voice, "Yeah, but for how long, babe?" as he got bum rushed by this sudden urge he felt to pick her up and carry her into the apartment. At that time, however, he put it off to left over adrenaline. that's all these strange new urges and awarenesses he felt were, right? Just him finally being too tired to fight the magnetic pull he'd felt to Lexa since she came to town and they'd met...

Because he was not a man given to believing in anything remotely supernatural..

He bent and picked her up, carried her into the apartment, using his foot to kick the door open a little so he didn't have to put her down. Alexa groaned as if on cue, Aurora woke up and let out her usual squeal. Nathan sat Lexa on the couch and looking at her intently said after a few long moments, "I want you.. I mean I want to be with you.."

Lexa gaped at him a few moments and then answered back quietly, "Tonight.. When you guys were in the middle of that mob war bullshit.. All I kept thinking was how I hadn't exactly told you how I felt about you, I mean we haven't really talked about that kiss.. Or the things we've sort of done to get closer together since.. And we really, really need to." which Nathan nodded in agreement to.

Shortly after, he leaned in and pinned her back against the couch as he said quietly, "Well, you know how I feel.. How do you feel?" while staring into her eyes and waiting nervously. Lexa smiled and said quietly, "I want you too.. I mean I want to be with you.. But we can't just rush into all this?" as he nodded quietly and then said "You rest.. I'll get Aurora back to sleep.. You two didn't have to sit here half the night and wait on me.. But I gotta admit, babe.. I can get used to you doing what you did when I got off the elevator just now.. It makes coming back here worth it.. Just having you two here makes coming back here worth it. I mean before.. This was just a place to sleep.. Now it kinda feels like home.." he admitted as he stood and picked up Aurora and walked into the kitchen with her, chuckling when she hugged herself against him and cooed several times.

He smiled and let her hug against him and said quietly, "It's okay now, Rora.. You can go back to sleep.. I'm home." as he warmed up her bottle while talking to her, moving around the kitchen. Lexa watched quietly from the doorway, smiled to herself... She could trust him, she felt happy with him, safe with him.. And finally, with the truth in the open, she felt like a huge weight had been lifted. And she didn't have to fight the obvious mutual attraction anymore now.

Tonight was a good night. One she wouldn't forget for a long time, she figured.


End file.
